Left Brain Vs. Right Brain Function in Learning

The notion that some of us are left-brained (logical, analytical) and some are right-brained (intuitive, creative) is nothing new. The eyes of the masses fixed on this idea starting in the 1860s when Dr . Paul Broca (and a few years later, Dr. Carl Wernicke discovered areas in the left hemisphere of the brain that were used for language. Interest in the brain's duality can be seen in literature from the era, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This article explores left brain vs. right brain function in learning theories in-depth and here is where you will find our general overview on right brain left brain.

LEFT BRAIN VERSES RIGHT BRAIN HEMISPHERE

Beginning in the 1960s, the study of differences in the hemispheres became extremely popular. Dr. Roger Sperry studied split-brain patients (whose two hemispheres could not communicate with each other due to a severed corpus callosum) and won a Nobel Prize "for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. "Google" right brain / left brain "today, and you'll get over 34 million results. Not bad for something Psychology Today called its" Fad of the Year "in 1977.

FUNCTIONING OF LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN

While research seems to confirm that there are areas in the brain for language and some for spatial functions, the brain is a series of networks. The assumption that each individual is either right-brained or left-brained is an exaggeration, according to Dr. Michael Corballis, a professor of psychology at University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. "These centers have to do with how the normal brain processes the world, and not with how people differ from each other," explains Corballis. "To say that the two hemispheres have somewhat different functions is not a myth. But it is wrong to say that one or the other side is universally dominant. Dominance is task-related, not person-related. If we're talking or reading, the left brain is dominant, but if we are navigating the right brain is dominant I think there is a strong desire to categorize people into two groups (good / bad, strong / weak, fat / thin);. it's a kind of easy simplification, "explains Corballis.

Corballis points out that creativity is often considered a right-brain characteristic, and yet language, which is very creative, takes place in the left brain for most people, even most left-handed folks, whose hand skills are controlled by the right brain and thus have been perceived as more right-brain dominant. "People do, of course, vary in analytic powers and in emotionality," he says. "This does not mean they fall into distinct groups. Both measures are continuous rather than discrete. For example, you can be both analytic AND emotional! "

RIGHT BRAIN LEFT BRAIN TEST

While you may not want to spend your hard-earned money on tests that claim to help you discover if you're left or right-brained (and how to use it to your advantage in business in five easy steps!), Quizzes taken for fun are relatively harmless and may give insights into your personality. Corballis states, "The tests are probably telling you something about the way you think, or respond to questions, but this probably has little to do with which side of the brain is dominant. It can be useful, of course, to know that you have certain characteristics -. that's what testing is all about, but trying to relate it to brain dominance gives a false air of scientific respectability "

Perhaps understanding more about the personalities of your students and / or your children can help you develop fun new ways for them to learn, realizing that each of us has both creative and analytical skills. As an educator, it could also be quite beneficial for you to understand your own right brain vs. left brain tendencies.

- Emily Vietti

Left Brain vs Right Brain

Have you ever heard people say that they tend to be more of a right-brain or left-brain thinker? From books to television programs, you've probably heard the phrase mentioned numerous times or perhaps you've even taken an online test to determine which type best describes you. Given the popularity of the idea of ​​"right brained" and "left brained" thinkers, it might surprise you learn learn that this idea is just one of many myths about the brain.

What Is Left Brain - Right Brain Theory?

According to the theory of left-brain or right-brain dominance, each side of the brain controls different types of thinking. Additionally, people are said to prefer one type of thinking over the other. For example, a person who is "left- brained "is often said to be more logical, analytical, and objective, while a person who is" right-brained "is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective.

In psychology, the theory is based on what is known as the lateralization of brain function. So does one side of the brain really control specific functions? Are people either left-brained or right-brained? Like many popular psychology myths, this one grew out of observations about the human brain that were then dramatically distorted and exaggerated.

The right brain-left brain theory originated in the work of Roger W. Sperry, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1981. While studying the effects of epilepsy, Sperry discovered that cutting the corpus collosum (the structure that connects the two hemispheres of the brain) could reduce or eliminate seizures. However, these patients also experienced other symptoms after the communication pathway between the two sides of the brain was cut. For example, many split-brain patients found themselves unable to name objects that were processed by the right side of the brain, but were able to name objects that were processed by the left-side of the brain. Based on this information, Sperry suggested that language was controlled by the left-side of the brain.

Later research has shown that the brain is not nearly as dichotomous as once thought. For example, recent research has shown that abilities in subjects such as math are actually strongest when both halves of the brain work together. Today, neuroscientists know that the two sides of the brain work together to perform a wide variety of tasks and that the two hemispheres communicate through the corpus collosum. 

"No matter how lateralized the brain can get, though, the two sides still work together," science writer Carl Zimmer explained in an article for Discover magazine. "The pop psychology notion of a left brain and a right brain does not capture their intimate working relationship. The left hemisphere specializes in picking out the sounds that form words and working out the syntax of the words, for example, but it does not have a monopoly on language processing. The right hemisphere is actually more sensitive to the emotional features of language, tuning in to the slow rhythms of speech that carry intonation and stress.

"In one study by researchers at the University of Utah, more 1,000 participants had their brains analyzed in order to determine if they preferred using one side over the other. The study revealed that while activity was sometimes higher in certain important regions, both sides of the brain were essentially equal in their activity on average. 

"It's absolutely true that some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain. Language tends to be on the left, attention more on the right. But people do not tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network. It seems to be determined more connection by connection, "explained the study's lead author Dr. Jeff Anderson.

While the idea of ​​right brain / left brain thinkers has been debunked, its popularity persists. So what exactly did this theory suggest?

The Right Brain

According to the left-brain, right-brain dominance theory, the right side of the brain is best at expressive and creative tasks Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include.:

• Recognizing faces
• Expressing emotions
• Music
• Reading emotions
• Color
• Images
• Intuition
• Creativity

The Left Brain

The left-side of the brain is considered to be adept at tasks that involve logic, language and analytical thinking The left-brain is often described as being better at.:

• Language
• Logic
• Critical thinking
• Numbers
• Reasoning

So Why Do People Still Talk About Right-Brain, Left-Brain Theory?

Researchers have demonstrated that right-brain / left-brain theory is a myth, yet its popularity persists. Why? Unfortunately many people are likely unaware that the theory is outdated. Today, students might continue to learn about the theory as a point of historical interest - to understand how our ideas about how the brain works have evolved and changed over time as researchers have learned more about how the brain operates 

While over-generalized and overstated by popular psychology and self-help texts, understanding your strengths and weaknesses in. certain areas can help you develop better ways to learn and study. For example, students who have a difficult time following verbal instructions (often cited as a right-brain characteristic) might benefit from writing down directions and developing better organizational skills. The important thing to remember if you take one of the many left brain / right brain quizzes that you will likely encounter online is that they are entirely for fun and you should not place much stock in your results.

10 Famous Teachers Who Changed the World

Education is just impossible without a proper and appropriate teacher and the present world that we are looking around would not be possible without an appropriate and right teacher. However, the great teachers of time had their own methods to teaching and learning and put through the foundation of present contemporary world. Below are mentioned some of the greatest teacher of our times who shaped the civilization to a greater extent.

Confucius: He was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher whose teachings have influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese life to a greater extent. In his philosophies, he advocated personal and governmental morality. His teachings developed into a system of philosophy known to be as Confucianism.

Aristotle: He was a Greek philosopher, student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He has written over a good number of subjects like physics, metaphysics, poetry, theatre, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, biology and zoology.

Johann Amos Coménius: He was a Moravian teacher, scientist, educator and writer. He was a Unity of the Brethren/ Moravian Protestant bishop, a religious refugee, the earliest champions of universal education and a concept set forth in his book Didactica Magna

John Locke: He was an emphatic follower of the belief that knowledge is needed to be taught.   He insisted on teaching of character first and academics later. He was of the belief that good character far exceeds the value of learning to read, write, and complete calculations and other uses.

Friedrich Froebel: He was a German pedagogue, a student of Pestalozzi who put forth foundation for modern education on the basis of research that students have their own specific need and capabilities for learning. He created the concept of kindergarten and coined the word as well for use in English language.

Henry David Thoreau: He was an American poet, author, surveyor, historian, philosopher and leading transcendentalist. He is better known for his book Walden, about simple living in natural surroundings. His articles, essays, journals and poetry total over 20 volumes.

Booker T. Washington: He was a noted and renowned American political leader, educator, orator and author. He was a prominent personality in the American- African community from 1890 to 1915 in the United States. He was from the last generation of those black leaders who were born in slavery and fought for the civil rights of their brethren.

Noah Webster: He was an American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, word enthusiast and editor. He is known to be the Father of the American Scholarship and Education. His “Blue-Backed Speller” books have used for five generations in US to teach children English.

Albert Einstein: He was a theoretical physicist and his contribution to the physics is known from the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury and others.  He is best known for his theories of special relativity and general relativity. In 1921, he received Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to Theoretical Physics and his discovery of law of photoelectric effect.

Ayn Rand: She was a renowned Russian- American Novelist, philosopher, playwright and screensaver and is known for her two best selling novels and starting a philosophical system that is known as Objectivism. She came into the fame with her novel The Fountainhead in 1943 and again she became immortalized with her philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged in 1957.

Babies Need Love to Learn

We know that babies need love to thrive.  Babies also need love to learn…

According to science, the brain needs hugs to develop.  This is because a baby who feels secure and safe in the envelope of his parents’ love is free to divert attention away from the business of survival and focus fully on learning.  It is a little like Maslov’s hierarchy of needs:

If a baby has to constantly monitor his environment to determine if he is in or out of danger, he cannot focus on learning new things.  Parents who provide bonding and attachment to their babies help their babies form a sense of trust, developing the limbic system which is responsible for the formation of emotional relationships.  The limbic system is also responsible for alerting other brain functions of threats to self. 

Parents who are responsive to their babies help to soothe fear, discomfort, sadness and other negative emotions that interfere with their babies’ ability to learn.

In order of a baby to feel secure and loved, he needs a consistent pattern of responsiveness from his primary caregiver to cement the expectation that all his needs will be attended to. 

These positive emotions have a demonstrable effect on the brain – emotion allows baby to pay attention and attention promotes learning.  How secure a baby feels affects:

• intellectual potential
• language development
• regulation of feelings/self-control
• development of empathy, trust, and motivation
• acquisition of conscience, identity, self-confidence, and self-esteem
• ability to cope with stress and bounce back from setbacks
• ability to make and sustain future relationships – love and friendship

- DR SHEN-LI LEE

Early Childhood Education: The Shichida Method

The further I research the topic of Early Childhood Education, it seems the more uncertain I am about which direction to head towards.  I had heard about the Shichida Method from a friend but knew very little about it except that it was a flashcard method of teaching infants – or so I thought.  It appears that the true Shichida Method is more than that. I wasn’t able to glean much about the Shichida Method from their website as much of the information explaining it was rather obscure.

In a nutshell, the Shichida website tells you that babies have great potential and that it is important to help them realise this potential.  Tell me something I don’t already know.  If you want to know more about how to do this, you need to sign up for their course.  They say you can implement the Shichida Method by reading about it from the books but the courses give you practical guides that you cannot get from reading alone.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single Shichida book that was written in English and available for sale on Amazon or Kinokuniya.  No wonder they say it is difficult to implement the Shichida Method without having attended one of their courses…

After a little more digging, this is what I have been able to find on the Shichida Method.  I do not know if this is an accurate depiction of the philosophy since it did not come directly from any official Shichida source, but I think the gist of it is here.

What is the Shichida Method?

Also known as “Right Brain Training”, the Shichida Method begins with the premise that all babies are born geniuses.  From birth to about 3 years old, an infant uses mostly the right side of the brain.  However, as the infant grows older, the left side of the brain begins to develop and to dominate the right side.  This makes it harder for an individual to access abilities from the right side of the brain.

Both left and right sides of the brain have different capabilities. The left brain is logical, sequential, rational, analytical, objective and tends to look at parts.  The right brain is random, intuitive, holistic, synthesising, subjective and capable of capturing images as a whole.  Both sides of the brain function as opposites and compliment the other.

It has been found that most successful individuals demonstrate a key ability to utilise the right brain’s distinct image visualisation.  It is also believed to hold the potential for genius as it lacks the concepts of limits that are imposed by the left brain.  This is one of the reasons why flashes of genius are often witnessed in autistic individuals – because of the poor communication between the left and right brain, the left brain is unable to exert the usual controls over the right brain that is present in a normal individual.

So to help out children maximise their potential for genius, the Shichida Method focuses on training the right brain of infants (as young as possible – preferable between the age of 0-3) with right brain specific activities.

How Do you Stimulate the Right Brain?

One of the methods described by Shichida is to use flash cards which are presented quickly.  Information that is presented slowly and repetitively exercises the left brain.

What is the Difference Between Glenn Doman and Shichida?

According to Brainy-Child, the fundamental difference between Shichida and Glenn Doman is that Shichida “believes in not over-emphasizing on knowledge education, and that the cultivation of the child’s ability to learn on his own is of utmost importance.”  If the child’s brain is overstuffed with knowledge, it becomes difficult to exercise and develop the right brain.

However, if you read the article from the International Parenting Association, it quotes Shichida saying that presenting large amounts of information at a fast pace to infants, toddlers and preschoolers stimulates the right brain and can activate photographic memory. If presenting large amounts of information isn’t stuffing the brain, then I’m not sure what is.

Is there a difference between Shichida and Glenn Doman?  I’m not sure, but I believe it has something to do with the number of repetitions.  Any parent who has tried either or both methods –  please feel free to share more about the differences between the two.

- DR SHEN-LI LEE